Dean M. Harvey

A Fighter for Fair Competition

Dean is among the nation’s leading advocates for workers asserting antitrust claims. He is the Chair of Lieff Cabraser’s Labor Antitrust Practice Group. He represented a nationwide class of over 64,000 high-tech workers against Google, Apple, Intel and other tech giants for conspiring to suppress the mobility and compensation of their technical employees. This landmark case resulted in the largest recovery (by far) of any class action asserting antitrust claims in the employment context: $435 million. The Daily Journal described the case as the “most significant antitrust employment case in recent history,” adding that it “has been widely recognized as a legal and public policy breakthrough.” The case is the subject of a documentary: When Rules Don’t Apply.

Dean also represented a class of over 5,000 academic doctors at Duke and UNC regarding an understanding between the schools not to compete for each other’s faculty. That case resulted in a settlement of $54.5 million (approximately $10,000 per class member) and unprecedented injunctive relief, including an important enforcement role for the United States Department of Justice. Assistant Attorney General Delrahim remarked: “Permitting the United States to become part of this settlement agreement in this private antitrust case, and thereby to obtain all of the relief and protections it likely would have sought after a lengthy investigation, demonstrates the benefits that can be obtained efficiently for the American worker when public and private enforcement work in tandem.”

Dean is Co-Lead Interim Class counsel of a proposed nationwide class of workers alleging a conspiracy between the world’s two leading rail equipment suppliers to suppress the pay of their employees. That case led to total settlements of $48.95 million, which are pending final approval. He is also proposed Co-Lead Class Counsel in several cases against the nation’s leading fast food franchisors, challenging agreements that prohibited franchisees and franchisors from competing for each other’s workers.

Dean also represents consumers and small businesses in cases challenging price-fixing conspiracies, particularly regarding the exorbitant prices of prescription drugs. For example, the Cipro litigation led to a landmark (and unanimous) decision by the California Supreme Court upholding the rights of consumers to challenge backroom deals between brand name drug makers and generic manufacturers to eliminate competition for life-saving medications. That case led to total settlements of $399 million, nearly $68 million more than estimated damages. The trial court described the outcome as “extraordinary,” adding that it was “not aware of any case” that “has taken roughly 17 years,” where, net of fees, end-payor “claimants will get basically 100 cents on the dollar[.]” Currently, Dean represents a municipal public employee union and other proposed class members challenging a wide-ranging alleged conspiracy among generic drug makers to inflate the prices of many generic drugs. The conspiracy has been described as most likely the largest cartel in the history of the United States.

Dean is also lead Interim Class Counsel for a proposed class of purchasers of bail bonds in California. This first-of-its-kind case alleges a conspiracy among sureties and bail agents to inflate bail bond prices.

Dean was a Law Clerk to the Honorable James V. Selna of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

In 2019, the American Antitrust Institute chose Dean for its Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Practice award, in recognition of his work representing workers in the Duke/UNC No-Poach case. In 2017, the American Bar Association recognized Dean as one of the top 40 young lawyers in the country, and the Daily Journal included Dean in its “Top 40 Under 40” list of the most esteemed California attorneys under the age of 40. In 2016, Dean received a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) award for the Cipro antitrust litigation. From 2013 to the present, Super Lawyers has named Dean a “Super Lawyer,” after naming him a “Rising Star” from 2010 through 2012. In 2013, The Recorder recognized Dean as a “Lawyer on the Fast Track,” one of 50 attorneys in California “whose early accomplishments indicate they will be tomorrow’s top lawyers and leaders.” In 2006, Dean received the first annual William E. Swope Antitrust Writing Award for his paper, “Anticompetitive Social Norms as Antitrust Violations,” published by the California Law Review.

Dean is a member of the American Antitrust Institute’s Advisory Board. He previously served as Co-Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law, Competition Torts Committee, and as a member of the Law360 Competition Editorial Advisory Board.

Co-Author with Yaman Salahi, Comments of the Antitrust Law Section of the ABA in Connection with the FTC Workshop on “Non-Competes in the Workplace: Examining Antitrust and Consumer Protection Issues,” April 2020

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